How much CO2 do we produce by sleeping on average in a hut (including breakfast and dinner)in high-altitude > 3000 m)? Let's assume that the hut offers 50 beds and that a helicopter has to supply the hut every 2/3 weeks. How much is it compared to a short-haul flight / car drive of 300 km? Can you consider sleeping in a hut being environmental-friendly?
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Perhaps SAC can share some info on how many supply flights they have per week for a moderately attended mountain hut, and then calculate the CO2 emissions based on that. From anecdotal observations, I believe they are supplied closer to 2-3 times per week than to every 2-3 weeks. Maybe we should invite over some people from The Great Outdoors as they might have more expertise (although the question is on-topic here).– gerritCommented Aug 15, 2019 at 10:56
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The AMC huts in NH are not over 3000m, but this might give you an idea of the needed supplies and weight: youtube.com/watch?v=P9BOphdwvYY&feature=youtu.be– StrongBadCommented Aug 15, 2019 at 16:01
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Do you know if water will be required– Scott TramposchCommented Aug 15, 2019 at 19:34
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To make a comparison, you would need to know what kind of helicopter would be used, how far it would have to fly, and what kind of car would be used. To determine your CO2 footprint, it would help to know the location of the hut, the type of supplies, and the source of the supplies you intend to use. Info regarding the time of year, type of hut, and type of fuel used to heat the hut would also be helpful.– Scott TramposchCommented Aug 15, 2019 at 19:56
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1"Can you consider sleeping in a hut being environmental-friendly?" — So is the comparison between a) nobody sleeps there: no helicopters; b) people sleep there: yes helicopters?– LeventeCommented Mar 1, 2021 at 20:30
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2 Answers
Depends:
I know of one case that a helicopter was used to haul gravel for a trail. The chopper could move a thousand pounds of gravel every 3 minutes. Two hoppers unclip one, clip the other, scat to the other end. If you used something like the kubota side by sides it would have taken 4 trips for that same thousand pounds, and well over an hour per trip. Chopper used less fuel.
So, you need to pin some more things down:
- How long is the flight from trail head to cabin?
- how long is the flight from the operations base to the trail head.
- How many cabins can be supplied from that trail head?
- Can multiple cabins be supplied in one run from the trail head.
These figres along with the specs of the aircraft, can give you a fuel/resources used per cabin visit.
Now more info:
Are choppers used to bring people in? If so, then supply can be 'free' as part of the people transport.
What is the flight frequency per cabin? If one flight brings in all the supplies for the winter (or summer) season then on a per night-use basis it's small. If it's bringing in fresh milk and brussell sprouts in every week, it will be a lot higher.
Are you going to bring in drinking water, or are you going to bring in equipment/materials to purify water on site? Is crap going to be flown out, or disposed of on site.
answered Sep 4, 2019 at 1:11
The weight of CO2 produced is roughly the weight of fuel consumed multiplied by 44/12 (ratio mass of CO2 molecule to the carbon atom).
The food will be delivered by a small helicopter, and the mass of the food is pretty small compared to that of the helicopter.
A small helicopter might fly 1.5 km/l (https://www.enn.com/articles/23533-what-about-helicopter-emissions) and the valley station might be a few kilometers away. The helicopter is probably making deliveries to several huts in the area. Lets assume it is flying 30km in total for each hut, that makes 20 litres of fuel, close to 20kg.
Each flight provides meals for 50 people for 16 days: 800 person-days of supplies.
That means that the weight of CO2 released is 44/12 * 20 / 800 = 0.1 kg /person/day .
Driving 300km in a small car may burn 5 litres of fuel, and hence release around 18kg of CO2. Each night in the hut is equivalent to driving a little less than 2km ... so it is not bad.
On a short haul flight, covering maybe 500km, the fuel use per passenger is quite similar to covering the same distance by car (e.g. https://www.you.co/sg/blog/reducing-carbon-footprint-flight-car-bus-train/ ): so this is worse than the 300km drive.
The estimates I've used for the helicopter transport have a lot of uncertainty, but based on these numbers I'd say that personal transport is a bigger concern for many tourists, unless you are lucky enough to live a short train ride away from the Alps.
